This speech by the Vice President provides insight into her conception of peace and love as it is lived in the context of Nicaragua today. The government and its supporters are seen as promoting, protecting peace, in spite of the fact that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in her most recent report says the government criminalizes protestors, and independent media reported FSLN supporter attacks on a sacristan in Matagalpa, and on the funeral mass of Ernesto Cardenal, where several journalists were badly beaten. Those who continue to protest the government are seen as altering Peace, and “touching God with dirty hands”. The use of religious language in this way shows how difficult it is to maintain perspective in this charged environment.
Compañero Rosario after the Act in Homage of General Sandino
Published Saturday, February 22, 2020 in El 19 Digital (FSLN website)
[original Spanish, capitals in original]
Declarations of Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua after the Act in Commemoration of the 86th Anniversary of the Transition to Immortality of the General of Free Men and Women Augusto C. Sandino, February 21, 2020:
Good Evening…Good News…Good, Very Good Times of Victories! Sandino, here we are! And Sandino is taking care of Nicaragua, because Sandino gave his Life for Nicaragua, IS ENAMORED WITH NICARAGUA and the Peace of Nicaragua, Sovereignty, and the Dignity of the Nicaraguan People. Sandino, that Immense, Infinite Spirit, whose Legacy we honor today with the Army of Nicaragua, that, as General Julio César Avilés Castillo well said, is the continuity of the Army for the Defense of the National Sovereignty of Nicaragua.
Sandino, Always Over and Above, teaches us to find in our Spirits and in our Hearts the interior resources to know how to go Always Over and Above! To know how to face with Courage all challenges. To raise up each day, to lift up each day our Love for the Country, the Free Country, our Free Nicaragua, Always Blessed, to cultivate Love and Peace every day.
What Noble Task…! A Noble Task and a Task for each Nicaraguan. We know that here, as I say every day, Love reigns in all its forms, and that the Majorities in Nicaragua, we want to Live in Peace, cultivating as craftspeople, building as Artisans, the Peace that ensures us Stability, Work, Prosperity, Future for All. Hate destroys. Peace builds. That is why every day we ask God that he allow us to grow spiritually into a Culture of Peace. Growing to serve our People, for the Wellbeing of our Families, to Live Better, to Prosper, to feel the Joy of Peace in our Homes, in our Families, and above all to grow with the Awareness that everything is possible in Love and Peace!
We invite us every day to Harmony. We invite us every day to Encounter. We invite us every day to leave behind bad feelings. We want to grow from the Good Hearts that we all have, and throw away, discard forever any form of Hate, or the alteration of Peace.
Here we care for Peace, and all us Nicaraguans can be sure of that. We Care for Peace as a National Treasure.
Never more will Peace be altered in our Nicaragua. It is a Life Commitment of Most Nicaraguans, and above all of Mothers. We Mothers want to live in Peace! And we are not going to allow, we Mothers, the Mothers of Nicaragua that Peace be altered, in any form. Everything is possible with the Power of Love. We can think differently, but we do not hate. Fraternity is indispensable and more in this World so stalked by every type of threat.
We need to be an example, continue being an example and inspiration, because we need to cultivate Peace every day, and show that based on Peace, on Harmonious Living Together, banishing the discord that some Hearts still shelter, Let´s go Forward!
It is not with discord that a Country is built. It is not with malicious feelings, to not say evil feelings; malicious…No! A Country is built, the Future of a Country and of a People, the Right of the People to Peace and Work is Sacred, it is built being reasonable, raising Awareness every day. And Awareness, the Good Awareness which is but the recognition that all of us Brothers and Sisters, all of us were born and live in Nicaragua, and all of us also have the responsibility and the duty to install the Future in Nicaragua.
We know how we were doing…very well, thanks to God, firmly believing in Reconciliation. And we know who altered that Path. I always say that altering Peace is touching God with dirty hands, because Jesus Christ Our Lord is the Prince of Peace, Love, Understanding, Family Values. That is why I say that the Majorities in Nicaragua, who recognize those minorities who, disguised, choreographing, stage designing, doing theatre, pretended to represent the Nicaraguan People, when we all know that they never, never represented our People.
We the Majorities we do want a Future, we do believe that Peace is indispensable, and well, we are not going to allow any alteration to that Peace that belongs to all of us Nicaraguans, not to the minorities who do not represent Peace, much less Christian Feelings. Because Christianity teaches us to Love, teaches us to Forgive. It does not teach us to forget. It teaches us to forgive, and to build Peace every day, true Christianity.
That is why we say, we are capable of transcending difficult moments, transcending adverse circumstances, and we learn. We say that we learn, so that No Repetition might be a norm in our Country, that all of us might take care of that Peace that we have. Thanks to God we restored it, we recovered it, a Miracle to restore and recover Peace in our Nicaragua, and well, we thank God for that Miracle, and we take care of the Miracle, we care for it with all our Forces.
Here No Repetition is key. Let us internalize that that is the Message of the Majorities of Nicaraguans: No Repetition! Future, Future for All, Rights for All, Awareness raised, and the Spirit of Sandino, like the Spirit of our Rubén Darío, they demand that we walk in Peace, build Peace and Prosperous and Blissful Future for all in our Nicaragua. And they take care of us, they watch over us, along with every honest Nicaragua, the Peace that we recovered, the Peace that we have, and the Peace that we are!
So it is that a day like today, February 21, 86 years from the assassination that marked us forever, because they killed Sandino, they murdered Sandino, but Sandino lives here, in our Souls, and tells us: We have the Obligation to Fight for Peace, Defend Peace, with Dignity, with Sovereignty. Defending it knowing that Harmony and Living Together among us is indispensable to build the Country that we want.
Our Greetings, our Congratulations to all this Glorious Army of Nicaragua, that defends, that preserves Peace, with their People, with all the Nicaraguan People. The Peace that Jesus Christ left us. The Peace that Christ Jesus gives us. We receive Peace. We preserve Peace. We defend Peace. We want Peace, and we will have Peace!
Thanks, Compañer@s, Let us Go Forward, Always Above and Beyond! Thanks.